Wednesday, May 5, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon daily
Volume 83
Number 145
emerald
GTFs refuse to renegotiate oav raise
By Debbie Hewlett
Of ttf tmarmtd
If the University plans to reduce costs for
Graduate Teaching Fellows, it won't be
done by deferring a pay raise scheduled for
July 1, 1982
Brenda Cochrane, Pres, of the Graduate
Teaching Fellow's Federation told Shirley
Menaker, the University’s contract admin
istrator tor the renegotiation, that the GTFF
membership turned thumbs down the
University s request to re-open the contract
to discuss deferring a scheduled 5.5
percent pay raise The University had
proposed that the increase would be
delayed six months and that a 1 percent
increase scheduled for May of 1983 would
be upped to 2 percent
The members concluded balloting
Tuesday afternoon, voting 74 to 49 not to
renegotiate those points
"I think one of the main reasons people
voted no' is that there's a real feeling the
University would not be able to guarantee
there would be no lay-offs," Cochrane
said
Menaker said that the GTFF decision
may not be the best thing the union could
have done
“I'm dissapointed. I'd hoped It would
r
r'.' ,->v ' A
have been far less painful if we had taken
the deferral route," Menaker said.
Cochrane said that the GTFs had a
different point of view.' There was a feeling
that we would re-open and renegotiate and
then be asked to re-open and renegotiate
again," Cochrane said.
Menaker told the GTFs at a meeting
earlier this month that the University had
the choice of deferring the pay increase or
laying off GTFs
After a ‘ Deans' Council” meeting
Tuesday, Menaker said that most of the
Deans "were all sorry about the vote.” She
also said that the plan to deal with the cut
involved “sharing out the 3.2 percent
decrease among all GTFs."
Menaker said that rather than laying off
GTFs, the time allottments would be
reduced "We re not letting positions go,"
said Menaker.
The GTFF had suggested that
appointments which had run out could
reman unfilled to compensate for the 3.2
percent cut.
' There was also a feeling that there were
other ways to reduce the GTF payroll with
out firing," said Cochrane.
Menaker said that there are two reasons
for maintaining the current number of GTF
appointments.
■
-1
Student loans available
if banks will cooperate
By Ann Port*!
Ottha Bmaratd
A new federal loan program should be
available to students and their parents
by July, but only if state financial aid
officials can convince banks to offer the
loans.
Final regulations for the PLUS loan
program received the U.S. Department
of Education's stamp of approval last
month Theoretically, that means the
loans will soon be available to
independent students and graduate
students and the parents of dependent
students.
Yet banks in many states are skeptical
about accepting the new loan program,
according to Jeff Lee, Executive Direc
tor of the Oregon State Scholarship
Commission Lee points to the Colorado
PLUS program, which would be ready to
go if it could just find a tender.
He says he hopes the PLUS program
will be accepted by tenders in Oregon,
who so far have indicated more interest
in extending the loans to parents than
students
One thing that may change the banks'
reluctance is if Pres Reagan accom
plishes his goal of eliminating graduate
students from the Guaranteed Student
Loan program That doesn’t seem very
likely, Lee says, but Reagan's financial
aid cute last summer and winter didn't
seem likely — and they passed
Lee says the scholarship commission
has had ''excellent cooperation" from
Oregon banks in the past and he says
many seem to feel an obligation to
provide loans for students. That may
encourage them to offer PLUS loans to
graduate students who are shut out of
the GSL program, he says
Of course, there's still toe chance that
GSLs won't be available to graduate
students and no bank in Oregon will
offer PLUS loans, which would prevent
graduate students from getting lows at
student interest rates
"There many times is quite a gap
between what is tegatiy available to
students and what is really available to
students,' Lee says
The new PLUS program is supposed
to supplement the Guaranteed Student
Loan program The title ‘PLUS" is not
an acronym; it indicates a loan in addi
tion to a GO
PLUS loans carry a 14-percer.t
interest rate Unlike GSLs, on which the
government pays the interest until the
student graduates, interest on PLUS
loans begins accruing as soon as the
student gets the loan
Students do not begin repaying the
loans until they leave school, but
parents who borrow must begin repay
ing 60 days after the loan is made.
Also unlike the new GSL
requirements, parents applying for a
PLUS loan are not reqired to fill out a
need” analysis In addition to amounts
borrowed through GSLs, parents can
borrow up to $3,000 a year or a total of
$15,000 for each dependent grad
uate student
Graduate students and their parents
can borrow up to $5,000 a year or a total
of $25,000. Independent undergrad
uate student’s PLUS loan and GSL
combined may not exceed $2,500 a
year or a cumulative total of $12,500
Lee says toe 14-percent interest rate
may scare away some parents Also,
poor credit ratings will prevent others
from obtaining toe loans
"It's certainly not as good as toe
various types of student aid programs
we’ve had." he says. "But it does give
access to toe people who might not
have access otherwise ”
it tenders are located. PLUS forms
and applications should be available by
late June or early July, Lee says
Photo by Mark Pynes
GTFF president Brenda Cochrane Informs Shirley Menaker, the University’s
contract administrator, of the membership’s vote against renegotiation.
Of those areas that the University would
lose funding, entitlement is of the most
concern, Menaker said.
Without the numbers of GTFs enrolling
for courses at the University, the funding
the University receives from the state would
decline because entitlement is based on
the number of students enrolled.
Menaker said that the average number of
hours that would be cut from appointments
would be 2.75 for a .15 FTE and 5 for a .30
FTE. (1.0 FTE is considered full-time.)
British lose warship;
Harrier jet shot down
FALKLAND ISLANDS (AP) - An
Argentine jet fighter blasted a missile into
the British destroyer HMS Sheffield
Tuesday and as many as 30 of the 270
crewmen were feared dead as they
abandoned the blazing hulk, the British
Defense Ministry announced
Although the ministry did not say the ship
sank, it reported the crew was ordered
overboard "when there was no longer any
hope of saving the ship."
The counterblow came as Argentine
rescue craft continued searching for sur
vivors from the cruiser General Belgrano,
sunk in the frigid waters of the South
Atlantic on Sunday by a British submarine.
Argentina announced that at least 680
crewmen have been rescued, leaving
about 360 sailors still missing.
British Defense Ministry spokesman Ian
McDonald said the 3,660-ton Sheffield was
struck by a missile and caught fire, “which
spread out of control."
McDonald also announced that a British
Harrier jet was shot down and the pilot
killed during a raid on the airfield at Stanley,
the Falklands capital
British Defense Minister John Nott told
the House of Commons the aim of the latest
bombing raid on the Stanley airfield was "to
render the airstrip unusable for light supply,
communications and ground attack aircraft
operating within the Falkland Islands
themselves "
In other developments in the rapidly
escalating conflict, the United States
announced that some of its 75 personnel
were being evacuated from the U S.
Embassy in Buenos Aires because of
Argentine fury at U S support for Britain,
and the British government reported “no
progress" in efforts to find a peaceful
solution to the conflict.
British news media said the seven-year
old Sheffield, one of the most modern
warships in the Royal Navy, sank after
being hit by a missile fired from a French
made Etendard fighter-bomber from a
distance of more than 20 miles. The reports
said the Argentine pilot of the land-based
jet fired two missiles, one missing and the
other scoring a direct hit on the Sheffield’s
control room.
McDonald said all the destroyer’s sur
vivors were picked up.
The Sheffield was in the British battle
fleet of at least 27 warships and more than
40 requisitioned civilian vessels enforcing a
200-mile blockade around the disputed
Falkland Islands, which were seized April 2
by Argentina.
Argentina’s military government did not
immediately issue a report on the sinking of
the Sheffield, but claimed two out of three
Harrier jets attacking a dirt runway at
Goose Green, 40 miles west of Stanley,
were shot down. It made no mention of a
raid on the main Falklands airfield at
Stanley.
Both the Stanley and Goose Green air
strips were pummeled by British warplanes
Sunday in the first major strike of the
air-sea offensive launched by Britain to
recapture the archipelago, 250 miles off
Argentina's southern coast.
Britain said the Sheffield was inside the
blockade zone when it was hit but gave no
precise location. Argentina, accusing
Britain of "treacherous” behavior, said the
cruiser General Belgrano was 36 miles
outside the 200-mile zone when it was tom
apart by torpedoes
McDonald’s statement said the Harrier
was shot down in a follow-up raid on the
Stanley airfield after a Vulcan bomber had
again blasted the runway. A Vulcan, flying
from Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic
and refueled three times in flight, had
staged the first attack Sunday.
The U S. Embassy in Buenos Aires said a
small number of non-essential personnel
and some dependents of diplomats will
leave Argentina temporarily for Montevid
eo, Uruguay, "in view of the tragic conflict
in the South Atlantic and the unsettled
conditions it has created.”